Review by Choice Review
In this extraordinary collection of essays and images, the authors ask challenging questions about regional identity, national history, and the place of Native peoples in contemporary culture. The volume is dedicated at the most basic level to the presence of Sauk leader Black Hawk in the US today. Photographic essays, dedicated in turn to Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, document his imprint and importance, capturing the numerous places and businesses named for him as well as memorials and tourist sites associated with him across the upper Midwest. At a deeper level, particularly in the accompanying seven essays, the authors encourage readers to rethink the past and present, emphasizing the centrality of indigenous narratives and voices, too often edited out or overlooked in mainstream accounts of history, culture, and community. In the process, Brown (visiting professor, American Indian and Native studies, Iowa) and Kanouse (art history, Iowa) raise deep and disturbing questions about the foundations of the US. Of particular note, they prompt readers to think about the appropriation of culture and land, the dispossession of Native nations, and the continued misrecognition of American Indians. Throughout, the authors provide an approachable account of settler colonialism and meaningful pathways to engage it. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --C. Richard King, Washington State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
